Blitz
by Quintessential Queen of Hearts
Summary: My take on the season 9 finale. Picks up right after Till Death Do Us Part Ends.
1. Chapter 1

I do not own NCIS; No infringement is intended.

Please Review. A million thanks for reading.

He frantically climbed off of her. Her eyes were open staring at some fixed point on the ceiling. She wasn't blinking. Was she breathing? He wasn't sure. He tried to watch her chest but he was shaking so he wasn't sure if it was him or her moving. She could not be dead. That was an unacceptable outcome. He must have gotten there in time. He had to have. Someone was screaming her name. He realized it was him. He was two seconds away from shaking her awake, alive, whatever. Her eyes rolled around searching for something. It might have been the most precious thing he'd ever seen.

"Abby?" no more screaming. "Hmmm?" "Are you hurt?" Her eyes were still drifting aimlessly. "It was hot." She didn't try to get up but her hands rose to bat at her pigtails against the floor. "There was a bomb." "Oh." She was still batting at her hair. "You're not on fire." "Okay." The batting stopped. "Do you think you can move?" "Sure." "Okay, let's try." He grabbed her arms and pulled her into a sitting position. He checked her head and neck. There didn't seem to be anything seriously injured. She still wasn't focusing on him. "We need to get out of here." She nodded mutely looking around. He evaluated the situation. The main door was blocked. He knew she wouldn't be able to maneuver or climb around what had once been the outside wall. He was too afraid he'd drop her if he tried to carry her. The stairs. They would take the stairs. You had to go up to go down. Hopefully they could get out through the bullpen.

"Come on, Abs." She did manage to half pull herself up alongside him. Her nails were digging into her palms. He didn't know if she was drawing blood or if it had already been there. Dazed didn't begin to cover it. "Be careful, there's glass everywhere." He got them both standing. He discovered if he led her, she could follow on her own. They were almost to the ballistics room when he saw the grey plush sitting in what used to be one of her refrigerators. Bert must have been thrown. "Here, Abby, let's not forget Bert." He grabbed the hippo and shook off the glass fragments. "It's okay Gibbs; Bert will be fine in the lab. The lab is always safe." "Let's bring him anyway." He pushed the stuffed animal into her chest and wrapped one of her arms around it. She didn't drop it. He took her other arm and led her to the stairs.

Devastation. They came out into the bullpen to devastation. He dragged her along the far wall. Trying to not look at what used to be their desks. They were approaching the gaping hole that had once been the windows. He needed to get them to the other staircase that would lead outside. He would find somewhere safe to leave her and he could find the others. Surely they had all gotten out. It was eerily quiet. Then he came to an abrupt stop. He thought he heard something. Abby walked into the back of him and almost fell. He steadied her and left her standing on her own to follow the sound. He came to the elevator. He had heard something. His senior field agent was screaming for help.

Gibbs tried to pull the door open. "Tony!" "Boss?" It almost sounded like he was crying. "Are you hurt Tony." "Don't know. Gibbs. Help. Ziva." "Is Ziva with you?" "She's hurt boss." Gibbs heart froze again. Had he gotten to one daughter just to lose the other? "How? Tony, what happened?" He was still clawing at the doors to no avail. "She fell on top of me. I don't know. Everything fell on her. Her body took all the hit." "Is she breathing?" It was quiet for a few seconds. "Yeah." "That's good Tony." He needed to keep him calm. Having him lose it was going to help neither of them. "Is she awake?" "God Gibbs. I don't know. She wasn't for a long time. Sort of." "Can she tell you where she's hurt?" He could hear Tony trying to talk to Ziva. "She mumbles stuff. None of it's in English."

He could hear other people coming. Coming to help. He looked around to make sure Abby hadn't wandered. He could see her bobbing off towards the desks. "Abby come back." "Abby's there? She's okay, right?" Apparently Tony had heard him. "She's fine. Okay Tony, try to keep Ziva talking to you, I'm going to get you out." "But Boss, I don't know Hebrew." He was starting to panic. "That's okay Tony. She can still understand you." Hopefully that was the case. Abby wasn't in his vision anymore. Firefighters had arrived. "Tony, people are here to help." DiNozzo was distracted. "Maybe I'll try Spanish." "That's a good idea; I'm going to back up so they can open the doors. If you see sparks, cover your faces." Gibbs was sure Spanish wasn't going to help anything but hopefully it would keep Tony busy. He could see the Jaws of Life being brought up. Not reassuring.

As the metal saws started up, he left those who could actually help to do so. He looked around for Abby. She was nowhere to be seen. He started to panic before catching a glimpse of her pigtails. Why was she on the floor? In an instant, his blood ran cold. He had found probably the only reason she would be on the ground. She was sitting, surrounded by glass and debris, on the floor next to his last missing agent. The one who looked very, very dead. Hopefully unconscious was still an option.

From the new additions of blood, it looked like she'd been trying to brush the glass off of him. And stop the bleeding. He yelled for the medics as he ran to them. Mcgee was unconscious. Gibbs had grabbed his arm; the one Abby didn't have a vice grip on, and had found a weak pulse. He looked at Abby who was patting Mcgee's face with the hand not weaved through his. She spoke, her voice was still dazed. "I've told him already Gibbs. But I think you should too." "Tell him what Abby?" "That he doesn't have permission to die." The paramedics had gotten to them. He put his arms around Abby and tried to pull her away so they could take him. She pulled away from him and leaned back towards Mcgee. She kissed his face and reseted her head against his for a minute. "Love you. No puppies." She let go as they lifted him off the ground.

Gibbs left her sitting for a second. He went to his desk, which had been pushed back against the back wall. He righted the partition and pulled off the drawing Kelly had done. He folded it and shoved it into his pocket. He went back and pulled Abby up again. The doors of the elevator had just been pried open. Tony looked a mess. He was handing Ziva up to the rescue workers. It looked like they were having trouble getting him to let go.

Gibbs parked Abby again and went to help. "Come on Tony, give her to them. You've done good. But, she needs help." His eyes met those of his bewildered senior field agent. He wilted and finally released her into their care. She didn't look very good. Gibbs helped him climb out. He needed the hospital just as much as she did. Tony could walk though. Half. Only half his team was even ambulatory. It looked like Abby was coming out of shock. She was starting to hyperventilate. Gibbs grabbed each one by an arm and followed the men working on Ziva out of the building. He did not care about a single thing happening on that navy yard. Only his team. He guided Tony and Abby towards the ambulances. They would ride with the others. He would pull a gun if necessary. None of them had permission to die. Fear was all that was left.


	2. Chapter 2

I do not own NCIS; no infringement is intend.

Full disclosure: I am not a medical professional. If something doesn't make sense or is wrong, I apologize.

Please review. It helps, it really does.

They had all made it to the hospital. He could not say they were all in one piece but they all had pulses and were breathing. Maybe not totally on their own, but he would take it. For now. Mcgee had warranted his own personal helicopter ride. Ziva had been deemed well enough to travel by ambulance. Barely. Tony had already been climbing into the truck with her before the paramedics had tried to stop them. He was looking at his partner like he'd never see her again. The paramedics tried to protest. One look from Gibbs and protocol went out the window. They'd be coming back anyway. It would save them trips. Gibbs had followed DiNozzo and hauled Abby up behind him. They all took seats where they could find them. Abby was panicking. Doors closed, sirens on, go.

They made it to the hospital far less quickly than he thought they should have. He could have gotten them there sooner. Ziva was taken back immediately. Gibbs had been lovingly informed by the first nurse he came to that he would not be going back with Ziva. He would wait and go through triage like everyone else. His intimidation tactics failed and the doors had snapped closed in his face.

Information would not be given until the doctors were finished. This was not part of his plan. In his plan he followed Ziva and stared her down until she started speaking a language at least one of them understood. That would leave her several options, he could be reasonable. Then he would locate Mcgee and head slap him into next week if he didn't wake up and start the geek speak. They would both be fine. But they weren't letting his plan go into action. This was uncharted waters.

Instead, Gibbs found himself being led to a smaller room. Tony and Abby followed, apparently they had refused to be separated. He did not need medical attention. He needed for someone to check the others. The triage workers didn't seem to agree. Since they had all been classified as not in immediate danger of death, they asked him to fill out paperwork. He usually siphoned that task off on his agents, that wouldn't be happening today. He sped through his own pertinent medical history. Abby and Tony were muddling through their own. Tony was wheezing and Abby looked like she was trying to have another panic attack over the sedative the paramedics had given her. They all had various cuts and minor injuries. He wanted the status of his other two agents and he wanted it now.

He took up Ziva's paperwork. He was her next of kin, Tony her emergency contact, that was easy enough. He had done this before. But, how did you condense months of torture and years of who knows what else onto the provided lines? He always had trouble with that task. He tried his best. They could question him later. He wanted information and he wouldn't be getting it until these papers were done. Nurse Unhelpful had seen to that. They could pull her file.

He put Ziva's aside and picked up Tim's. Gibbs realized as he stared at the paper that he was drawing blanks. McGee had a better track record of not getting himself almost killed. He didn't know these answers off the top of his head like he did with Tony and Ziva. He should have, but Tim was always able to do his own paperwork. Mcgee was allergic to something. Pretty much the whole of the plant kingdom but a medicine too. He couldn't remember. "Penicillin" she was so quiet he barely heard her. He nodded to her and filled in the line. The artificial calm the meds had given her was at least better than the shock had been.

"Do you know the rest of this?" She edged herself over and rested her chin so she could read over his shoulder. He listened and wrote as she dictated the rest of the form then they went back to the area before she had spoken. Gibbs had managed to fill in his agent's name and biographic information. "Who are his contact people? Sarah?" Abby nodded against his shoulder as she spoke "Sarah is his next of kin." "And his emergency contact?" "Me." He thought it would have been Sarah for both. Abby started up again accelerating as she spoke "He said he couldn't ask her to make those kinds of decisions, that his baby sister shouldn't have to be responsible for that. He said he trusted me. Gibbs, I told him I could do it but…" He stopped her. Hopefully it wouldn't come to that.

Someone had come and collected their paperwork. About five minutes later, probably once they had hit the line that said Plague, the nurses were back putting Tony on oxygen and a breathing treatment. It was a waiting game. He was the sentinel. He sat and watched as Tony idly played with the tubing connected to him and Abby reverted to silence. He took to pacing the room. Half an hour later Tony snapped at him. Apparently Gibbs was driving him crazy. He went and sat back down by Abby. He wanted to glower at the senior field agent but it was difficult when he looked both ill and distressed.

Gibbs really was trying to be on his best behavior. More time passed. He looked over and found Abby silently crying. He caught her attention, she looked up and saw his questioning look. "I thought he was dead." She turned back to facing the wall. Mcgee would not die. If for nothing else than the fact that he would never abandon Abby. He needed that thought to push back the worry that kept breaking through. Ziva would not die. She had been through worse. She always came out of everything. If she hadn't run out of lives after Somalia, she wouldn't now. She would not let Tony lose another partner. They were going to be fine. He just had to keep telling himself that. A few more minutes passed.

Transport came and took Tony for a chest X-ray. Someone came to do stitches. Gibbs had a gash on his jaw and a nasty cut to the back of his neck that he hadn't been aware of. It meant he got to sit still while it was sewn up. Not his favorite activity. Taking the time to interrogate the staff about Ziva and Mcgee led nowhere. All anyone would tell him was that they were still alive. That was almost nothing. Another doctor was flushing glass fragments out of Abby's hands. He wondered how much of it was from the initial blast and how much she had picked up crawling around on the floor. Tony returned as they were finishing. It was back to the waiting game.

In the following hour he learned he was fine. He could have told them that. Had been telling them that. They were all to stay for a few hours for observation, to make sure more issues didn't arise. Like they would have left anyway. The minor injuries would all heal. They might be sore but they would live. Tony had earned breathing treatments for a few weeks. They were told it was probably more likely from catching Ziva with his chest than the bomb itself.

Abby was relatively fine. It turned out she didn't remember much of the event between being told to evacuate and being in the hospital, aside from finding Mcgee. The doctors told them it may or may not come back to her. Luckily it wasn't from physical trauma. They guessed she couldn't process what had happened so her mind was doing the blocking on its own. Gibbs thought it might be better that way. Both she and Gibbs stayed with Tony while he did his breathing thing. He was beginning to think it was time for another attempt at breaking through the trauma doors. Maybe if he promised Abby and Tony information they would be up to helping create a diversion.

It had been hours, hours of not knowing how his surrogate children were doing. Finally, a doctor had come to talk to them about Ziva. They had taken her to surgery. She had a crush injury to her back from being pummeled with the falling debris and a pretty decent concussion. The concussion was responsible for the language barrier. Before they had started anesthesia she had still been cycling through languages but had eventually landed on English. It was also good she had fallen on Tony and not the floor or it could have been worse. She had some internal bleeding from the injuries that they were working on fixing.

Once they were done, she would be moved to her own room. They could see her then. Her prognosis was good. Gibbs was momentarily appeased. He, Tony and Abby moved to a waiting room. He had found what the hospital was passing off as coffee. He'd give them awhile before starting to search floor by floor for Mcgee. In the mean time, he began mentally drafting his "what were you idiots doing in an elevator" speech that he could prepare now that he knew both of them would be fine.

He had just finished the section starting with "do emergency procedures mean nothing to you" when a new doctor approached asking for Abby. Her deer in the headlights look caused Gibbs to answer for her. The doctor came and sat with them. Abby was digging her nails into her palms again. The stitches were in danger of being pulled out. He loosened her grasp and took her hand in his.

They listened to talk of massive internal injuries. Surgery to attempt to repair what had been done. Taking the force of a bomb blast front on was not a good idea. Being thrown by the force didn't help either. They were doing everything they could. He would be moved to intensive care. The same unit as Ziva, except she would be moved in a couple of days if all went as expected, there would probably be more surgery. They didn't know. He could see blood rising on his own hand from the pressure of her nails. He didn't feel it.


	3. Chapter 3

I do not own NCIS; no infringement is intended.

Due to a bit of poor planning on my part, we're going to take a little jump back in time. I hope that's all right.

Reviews make me so happy! Please review!

The world was shaking. The floor came up to meet him. He felt himself crashing into the elevator walls and then the floor. He felt Ziva's body land on him. He tried to grab her and keep her from flying. His mind went blank. All he could think about was holding on. And then it stopped.

The elevator stopped swinging. He could feel adrenaline pulsing through his body. The metal box holding them was dark but it had stopped shuddering. He spent a minute trying to catch his breath and evaluate. The bomb must have detonated. They were in an elevator. Big mistake. Who knows how long they would be holed up waiting to be rescued.

He realized that Ziva was still laying on him. She hadn't moved. Shouldn't she be going all Ninja and busting them out? Slowly he shifted out from under her. He got himself sitting up and turned to where she lay. "Ziva?" He prodded at her. Never wake the sleeping assassin. That was a good rule to live by, he had depended on that one often enough. Why was there not a gun pointing in his face? He should have found himself staring down her Sig the second he touched her. Instead there was no movement, no hint of recognition. This was bad.

He'd been wasting time. If she was hurt, he should be doing everything he could to find a way out. To get her help. He pulled out his cell phone to aid in the illumination of the dark box. There was no signal. It just kept getting better. He lifted the pieces of ceiling tile and various debris off of her, throwing them aside. He was trying to be careful. He wasn't good at careful. He was more along the lines of the bull in the china shop. How long had they been trapped? Would anyone have noticed they were gone yet? "Zee?" Still nothing. Bad. Bad. Bad. There didn't appear to be anything he could do. There was no massive bleeding to stop, no bones visible.

Was she breathing? Yes, okay, that was good. Gibbs would know they were missing. He's gut would tell him. That superpower had never let them down yet. But Gibbs had gone with Cole to play hero with the bomb. What if... No, Gibbs had been almost blown up too many times for a bomb to be what finally did him in. Inventory: he was stuck in a non-functional elevator, post bomb blast, with hurt Ziva, no immediate plan for rescue, no idea what was happening outside their box. It could be armageddon for all he knew.

He checked the time. He did not like being the only conscious person. It was time for Ziva to come around. She should have long before this. Ziva should have leapt off of him and started ranting about the absurdity that they were stuck, she would have twisted everything into being all his fault. She should be threatening his life right now, not making him wonder about the current length of her's. Tony needed that to happen.

He pawed at her again. This time she reacted: scrunched up her eyes. That was good. He kept prodding at her. After several repeats of this behavior she started muttering. He really should have learned Hebrew by now. She cursed him in it often enough, it would be helpful to know what she was saying, especially now. Hindsight really was 20/20. Another few seconds and she was out again. Oh well. It had been nice while it lasted. It was back to sitting quietly. He shifted a little closer to her.

How long had it been now? His phone said another eight minutes had passed. Could it be trusted? It felt like so much longer. He had to do something. It was time to start yelling. More minutes ticked by. He was worried. Yelling was getting him nowhere. Nobody else was probably anywhere near the building. Still, somebody would have to sweep the building eventually. There was still a building right? They weren't just hanging in midair. One more glance at Ziva and he started yelling again. He couldn't take doing nothing. This time was different. This time it worked. He must have invoked some bat signal because he got not only somebody's attention, he got Gibbs.

Hearing the muffled voice of the boss changed everything. Relief. Gibbs would save them. He knew it would take more then a bomb to stop Gibbs. He managed to get out that Ziva was hurt. Not having to be totally responsible for himself and Ziva was a blessing and a curse. He didn't know what to do, Gibbs would have answers: the blessing. He wasn't responsible anymore, he could freak out a little: the curse. He answered Gibbs questions. learned Abby was safe. Ziva still wasn't.

Gibbs was telling him about their rescue. Apparently it involved heavy machinery. His mind was going a little funny. Gibbs was leaving them again. Back to his private thinking. Did muttering in Hebrew count as talking? Well sort of. She could have been saying "Die, Tony, Die" for all he knew. He should have pushed English more. They both knew Spanish. That would work too. He spent the remainder of their time in the box prodding her in both English and Spanish accompanied by a musical ambiance of metal saws. He even threw in a Shalom. He didn't like seeing Ziva unresponsive. Brought back memories of other things: of Somalia Ziva and of dead Kate. It was terrifying.

They doors were finally pulled apart, the floor was equal to his chest, and emergency personnel were asking him to hand them Ziva. He didn't even realize he was practically holding her. When had that happened? He also found that he didn't want to let her go. There was a dreadful feeling creeping up inside that he'd never see her again. Gibbs came back. He told him he did good. Gibbs wouldn't let them hurt her or take her away. She did need help. Even though he felt like it might turn out to be the biggest mistake of his life; he let her go.

Gibbs held out his hand for Tony to grab. He made it out of the elevator and onto the floor of what had once been the bullpen. He was already looking around for Ziva. They were putting her on a stretcher. He vaguely saw Gibbs go and collect Abby. That wasn't her blood, was it? She had a wild dead look in her eyes. Gibbs coaxed her back over to Tony. The boss grabbed one of his arms and they followed Ziva. Out of the building, the wreckage and the box. He wondered where Mcgee was, why he wasn't waiting for them, ensuring their rescue. He followed Ziva. It was what made sense. When things got messy he could usually follow Ziva out. He didn't stop following her until they were in the ambulance. Abby and Gibbs joined them.

The medics were working on his partner. One of them came to do a once over of the other passengers. Nothing that needed to be dealt with immediately. He found himself asking Gibbs if he'd heard from Mcgee, surely Mcsafety would have been running for the hills after hearing about a live bomb. Maybe he shouldn't have said that out loud. He didn't really mean it the way it had sounded.

Abby had started screeching about Mcgee and dead and blood in a frantic jumble that he couldn't really understand. Once her outburst had escalated to the point her words were no longer understandable and wasn't really breathing anymore the paramedics had stepped in. Whatever was in her head must have been pretty desperate for her to agree. He knew that she hated meds, didn't like the fog she could never seem to come out of. She wouldn't even take Tylenol. Day kept getting weirder.

After Abby had curled up against Gibbs, no longer on the verge of hysteria, his focus went to trying to figure out what they were doing to Ziva. He couldn't tell much, didn't understand what they were saying. Not that he would have known what any of it really indicated. Eventually, when he deemed it safe to ask, he looked towards Gibbs.

Tony needed to know, but he was scared to ask. The Probie could not be dead. In what he hoped was a voice that sounded more confident than he felt he asked where Mcgee was. By Abby's reaction he would have bet that he was no longer among the living. Gibbs met his eyes and told him Mcgee was alive, Abby had found him and Gibbs had seen him. He had been sent on ahead. Tony didn't have a response. Alive was good. Ziva had moved on to something that might have been a mixture of Arabic and German. He couldn't understand a word of it but it was something.

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	4. Chapter 4

I do not own NICS; no infringement is intended.

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It was hard trying to put the pieces together. She had been trying to leave the lab when she had been hit by something Gibbs sized and pinned to the floor. That was when things started to get wobbly. After that it was just flashes. She couldn't make her mind put it all together. Tony and Ziva had been in the elevator, she knew this, but then she couldn't remember how she knew.

If she kept going she knew they were at a hospital, but she wasn't sure how she had gotten from the inside what was left of NCIS to the room she occupied. There had been a lot in between but it was a blur. It felt like she'd just woken up and was trying to remember a dream before it escaped her. She had frozen images but no plot to tie them together. The sequence was gone. Abby had no idea what to do.

She was seated in a waiting room between Tony and Gibbs. Gibbs had taken one of her hands in his when she couldn't stop picking at her stitches or the bandages that covered them. Once she couldn't continue her game of trying to unravel the threads, she had slipped her other hand into one of Tony's. They sat, linked together, a chain half broken by the missing parts. They should have been a circle. Ziva would have taken Tony's other hand and taken her place on the other side of Gibbs.

She squeezed Tony's hand for a second. As much as she loved Tony, her big brother for all intents and purposes, she should have been hanging on to Mcgee. Mcgee would have taken his place by her and then the two boys would have had a bromance moment and grabbed on to each other. It would have been perfect. Everyone there. Everyone safe. Everyone holding on to exactly who they were meant to be. But that couldn't happen right now. It would have been a nice moment.

Instead, Abby was lost. They were waiting and sitting and being incomplete. She wanted to hide. To close her eyes and force it to be yesterday. It had never worked in the past, but maybe this time would be different. They would have figured it out earlier. They would have had time to run. She believed in miracles, and they could really use one right about now.

The bomb had detonated. They had told her this. She and Gibbs had been in her lab. This she remembered. Gibbs had walked her through it, they went up the stairs to the bullpen. As she followed along the story she tried to remember, figure out what it would have looked like, how it would have been destroyed. It was still a gaping unknown.

Her little glimpses and flashes were blown out of mind by what she did know. She could see being inside the building, the floor sparkled where the the sun hit the glass and dust that covered all the wreckage. It was grossly beautiful. Then came the perfectly preserved part that she hated to remember but wouldn't forget for anything in the world. She was looking at the glass and how the sun had come in to meet them, and she had turned her head. This was the part she knew. It was already giving her nightmares every time she closed her eyes and she hadn't even been to sleep yet. It was at that moment that everything stopped. It was the end.

Hope against all hope was what was keeping her from sinking in on herself. It didn't have to be the end. Not yet, not until they said the words that would prove that it was all over. She was freezing inside and it had nothing to do with the subarctic temperatures they kept the hospital at.

Of all the images she could see, that was the worst one. She was never going to be able to get it out of her head. Not in a million years. She had been drawn to him, held on to him because one of them had to hold on. She didn't remember what she had said to him. It was a scale. Just like in the lab. Amounts had to be given or taken or the other side collapsed. Their equilibrium was out of whack.

It would be classified right in the same area of her mind given to the photos from Kate and Jenny's murders. Things you just couldn't forget no matter what you did. No matter how hard you wished or prayed or begged, they didn't go away. And this time she'd seen it herself. There was no camera lens to protect her. Tim laying there frozen in time, more dead than alive, proving that everyone left. He had promised. For years, he had promised her they would all come back. He had to. Tony needed Ziva. Gibbs needed them all. She needed him.

Each and every time she thought about seeing him her heart almost stopped. She was only one person. It was too much to take. He could not abandon her. Not Mcgee. As many times as she had told herself it didn't matter, that he was just the same to her as everyone else, she broke her number one rule. Never lie to Abby. She would be convicted of lying to herself without a second thought. It was different with him. She knew it was the truth, both terrible and terrifying. If he ever woke up again, she wasn't letting him out of her sight. Sadly, she had done this enough times to know what might happen. She should try to prepare herself. They didn't always make it.

She held no illusions. This was serious. It might even come down to it being better for him to let him go. Then he could be with Kate and Jenny and Paula and everyone else who had gone before them. The last thing any of them needed was another grave to tend. Abby had lost her best friend once. Most of a decade later and she still wasn't over it.

What was going to happen if he died too? Another best friend, this time something more. That was a question she was not prepared to answer. She didn't know what was going to happen if Timothy Mcgee wasn't alive at the end of this mess. She had no intention of finding out.

A nurse pulled her back to reality. They could see Ziva. Their little trio had to let go. Gibbs led them down the hall after the nurse. Tony stopped at the door and she stopped with him. Gibbs had plowed ahead and laid eyes on her first. Apparently he had assessed her as fine because he didn't linger. Moved on to the next issue. From one look, she could tell Tony did not want to go into that room. But he would, for Ziva.

She knocked her shoulder into his. He was going in. Even if he didn't think he could do it, he would, she would not allow him to run away from this. Times of reckoning came along so few and far between. He shouldn't waste one of his. She might never get to say what she should have said a long time ago. Tony had a solidified future of chances. He should go take his opportunity. She'd give anything to ensure her own.


	5. Chapter 5

I do not own NCIS; no infringement is intended.

I apologize for the delay in updating. I'm experiencing mixed feelings about this story.

I would really appreciate your input. As always, I encourage and love your reviews dearly. I explicitly thank all reviewers!

Step one, Gibbs needed a phone. They had lacked contact with the outside world since entering the hospital. His cellphone wasn't working. He hadn't thought about it before now. He had no idea what had happened to Ziva's and Mcgee's probably hadn't made it off the Navy Yard, Abby's too had been lost in the confusion. There were people he needed to talk to. He needed to figure out where Leon was. Then he needed to make sure somebody had told Ducky. They were going to need him. He should probably go ahead and call Dr. Hampton too and get her on board.

Gibbs held out his hand, accompanied by the one word demand of "phone." Tony turned his over without a second thought. Gibbs stopped short upon waking the screen. DiNozzo had the damn thing on silent. He was met with 26 missed calls and 40 text messages, all from one number. Palmer had been leaving increasingly frantic pleas for someone to call him for hours. Gibbs stepped out into the hallway and called the number back.

They should have called Ducky and Palmer sooner, of course they would be worried. They would have even less information about the team than Gibbs did. It was an oversight on his part. As the phone rang, he expected to be greeted with Palmer's questioning about his friends' wellbeing. He was wrong. It wasn't Jimmy, but rather Breena.

Apparently they had set it up to forward his calls to her number. They had known Jimmy wouldn't be reachable in the air. Gibbs listened, with sinking despair, to her explain that Ducky had a heart attack. He was at the best hospital in the state and they were doing the surgery necessary to save him. Jimmy had talked to the director and was already on his way back to Washington. There was work to be done and Ducky wouldn't have wanted him to stay when he could be of use. She told Gibbs not to worry, she was staying with Ducky and she would keep him updated. But could she please have his number because she only had this one for Tony and Abby had never picked up.

The phone call ended. After he took a few seconds to acclimate to everything she had sprung on him, Gibbs felt his opinion of the girl, who he barely knew, rising. They were not the only one's involved in all this. Breena had given up her dream wedding for them. Now she'd be spending her honeymoon handling Ducky's care in Florida. Gibbs had tried to express his thanks to her, but he wasn't good with words. He was worried but he had too much to deal in DC, he couldn't imagine having Ducky alone. Having someone take over that part of what needed to be done was invaluable. However, his thanks was unnecessary, Breena wouldn't have done anything else. She had said for better and for worse. Worse just happened to be starting on day one. Their future could only get better.

Once he had hung up the phone, he turned back to face Ziva's room. Calling Leon and the others could wait. He was going to have to tell them about Ducky at some point. It would probably be better to get it over with. They had been waiting with Ziva for hours. She had woken up demanding to know the status of everyone else, starting with DiNozzo. Gibbs knew that Ziva would not allow emotions to cloud her judgment or actions. He couldn't say that about the others. The Mossad training would probably kick back in, it was how she dealt with things. Hopefully she wouldn't totally revert back to the ice queen. Nonetheless, She would be fine. He was thankful for that.

Once she had spent awhile talking to Tony, making him tell her everything that had happened, her cause for concern had transferred to the location of every weapon she had been carrying on her person at the time of the bomb. Hospital security wasn't likely to turn over lethal weapons to someone on narcotics but it was better to keep that bit of information from her for the time being. They had all been skirting around the issue of Mcgee. None of them had been allowed to see him although his surgery should have been wrapping up.

They could change nothing. It was best to focus on the present, no matter how displeasing the requirements. Returning to the task at hand, he reentered the room. As he slipped in, he could tell that the tone of Tony and Ziva's conversation had changed. When he had left they had been playfully fighting about "buzzed Ziva" which was apparently one of Tony's favorite personas. Walking back in he heard his senior field agent talking much more seriously. "Don't scare me like that again, Ninja." This whole incident was already shaking the trees. He could tell. Gibbs was admittedly leery of how things were going to end up falling. Yet, those were worries for another day.

DiNozzo slipped back into his usual mask once he saw Gibbs approaching. His partner was back to making sense. Another piece slipping back into the all is right with the world puzzle. Plus, she was stoned and gun obsessed. Which was hilarious. He leaned back in his seat next to Ziva's bed and watched Gibbs walk to the sofa where Abby was sitting. She'd been in her own little world for a good while, she had blatantly check out after talking to Ziva for a few minutes. Gibbs had leaned down in front of her, "Need you to pay attention, Abs." He stood back up and faced them as a group. Tony didn't see whatever revelations Gibbs was leading to as likely being a positive change. "You tell the Gremlin we're fine?" Gibbs gaze fell upon him and it wasn't comforting in the least. More bad news. Awesome.

"Talked to Breena, Palmer has been ordered back to help." They were all watching him. Before Gibbs could continue, Tony broke their collective silence: "Are they catching a military ride? I bet Ducky will love that, Palmer forced to be his audience the whole way back." Gibbs cringed internally. It was always easier to get bad news over with. "Palmer is returning alone, Ducky had a heart attack in Florida, Breena will be staying with him. He's fine for now."

They all looked a little shell shocked. That was saying something for all they had been through in the last hours. Gibbs went and sat down in the empty space beside Abby. There was little else to say on the matter. It was another thing to add to the pile of catastrophes that were weighing them all down. He didn't fail to notice Ziva's hand creeping along the bed to catch Tony's. It was another blow. Ducky was her confidant at NCIS, his too, Ducky was a constant. Hurting constants was unfathomable. If Tony was what it took to help her, he'd gladly let him do it.

Gibbs wasn't going to be able to handle everything on his own this time. He did not approve of having to accept this. But he knew that there was simply too much to fix. They were all going to have to step up in their own ways. His team needed each other. They always had. Tony and Ziva: proof in point. Both were better, knowing the other was going to be okay. Then there was Abby; who was unequivocally a mess. After his message about Ducky, she had retreated back into her silent stoicism. It was concerning. He really was going to need Mcgee to pull through this. They all were.

Abby was still in internal panic mode. Ducky being sick was horrible. Yes, undoubtedly. She had already added him to her litany of people who needed to be worried about and concerned for. But heart attacks were common, medical intervention had been prompt and the odds were more predictable. She could afford to not worry about him. There were bigger, more concerning problems in her immediate present. The main problem being the one who responded to Probie and liked writing his friends into his books.

Moving from the waiting room to the relative increased comfort of the slippery plastic sofa in Ziva's room was barely an upgrade in situation. A lonely positive being that from her position she could now hold watch over the room they had preassigned to Mcgee. They would know when he arrived. Of course the staff had already told them that even when he got there, they would need awhile to get him settled. She would find a way around that if need be. She had spent too long waiting, time not even included in the amount since the bomb had detonated. Waiting was over.

She had lost count of how many times she'd said the rosary, but she still couldn't put down the beads. If needed, she would cash in every favor she might have, any good grace she'd archived if it meant she got to keep him around for a little bit longer. She had asked every saint she could think, to intercede on his behalf. She'd sent up messages to everyone she knew that knew him; everyone they had lost, if any of them saw him coming, tell him to turn around, because she couldn't do this without him. She could not say goodbye. Everyone was worried about him. No matter what outcome occurred, she knew that everything was going to change.

The things gone wrong kept piling up. They needed a break. There couldn't possibly be any more to come. Their world had come crashing down. It had already been proven that when it rained it poured.


	6. Chapter 6

I do not own NCIS; no infringement is intended.

I usually don't set specific goals for writing, but I'm going to try very hard to have this story completed before the premiere. Let's hope it happens.

Thank you for reading! Please let me know what you think! Your insight is marvelous and makes me absolutely ecstatic.

Dearing had committed terrorism, against his own country. Without regard for the sanctity of life, he had murdered, harmed and forever changed hundreds, if not thousands. More than anyone, Gibbs understood the need to avenge the death of your child, but Dearing had taken out his anger on people who had nothing to do with what had happened to his son.

The people he had chose to involve had held no responsibility. Ordinary people who had just been trying to live their lives and do their work. To make the world safer and better for others. For these acts there could be no redemption. Not a court in the world would find him just or innocent. No matter what happened to him, there would never be true justice.

Gibbs had learned that from experience. Sometimes, there was simply no punishment equal to the crime. Beyond those grievous atrocities committed against his own country, came the more personal. These were the things that Gibbs counted just as seriously. These sins would feed his vengeance probably beyond death. Dearing had hurt Abby. That alone was enough to put him on Gibbs' most wanted list. But this time, he had hurt Tony and Ziva and Mcgee and even Ducky as well. All members of his team were in various states of brokenness. There would be lasting effects. For this, for hurting his family, there was no revenge too great. He was prepared to walk that familiar road once again.

It was odd how time behaved in hospitals. Gibbs had spent enough time waiting on various friends and family, and being a patient himself, to realize this. There was no middle ground; it was either a slow, dragging doom or a fast, frantic panic. He could not think of another place that reminded him of the sensation. It was like a vortex, trapping you inside with everything else ceasing to exist. Hospitals were a self contained world, no morning or night, no weather, nothing beyond the walls. Even those were usually beige, in some illusion of calmness and control.

At hospitals, you could stay indefinitely with no sense of anything beyond what your specific situation was. After his announcement about Ducky, they had remained in their claimed positions and let time slip away. It was quiet, there had been an unspoken agreement to not turn on the television. It would do more harm than good. They did not need to see their lives in living color. The facts would come out soon enough. For now, it would do more harm than good.

Thus, they waited, Gibbs had been watching, along with the others, as the team of hospital personnel brought Mcgee to his room. They couldn't see much of anything through the internal windows of both rooms and the mass of people that accompanied new patients to their rooms. Beside himself, he felt Abby stop breathing for a minute. Gibbs placed one of his hands on her knee to keep her in place in case she decided to run.

Fight or flight. He did not want to have to chase her through the winding hallways, attempting to determine her moves before she did in an attempt to catch her. It also wouldn't help for her to bolt into Mcgee's room just to be kicked right back out. They had told them to wait. This was the one instance when waiting obediently would get them what they wanted sooner. A foreign concept. It was difficult, he wanted to swarm the room and gain some sense of what was really going on. Of what they weren't being told. But he stayed and held her back and hoped that something would manage to hold them all together. Seconds seemed to stretch into hours and none of them were speaking.

What seemed like an eternity later, someone came for them. Ziva had to stay but the others could visit him. Gibbs caught Tony looking between Ziva and the room across the circular unit of rooms. "Listen Boss, I'll stay with Ziva. Mcgee doesn't need everyone barreling in at once, disrupting his beauty sleep." He accepted Tony's decision without question. They should start small.

He would get the updates and he would go with Abby, to get her proof that Mcgee wasn't dead. Ziva had managed to fall back asleep as they waited for news, none of them wanted to risk her waking up alone. He released his grasp on Abby and she rose automatically. "I'll find out what's going on and come tell you." As they started their short trek, Gibbs couldn't help but hope that this time things were going to work out in their favor. They had been on the short end of the stick so many times. Enough was enough. The last thing they needed was another tragedy.

Gibbs saw one of the doctors approaching them as they neared the room. It would be better if he got the pertinent medical information first. He might not understand as well as Abby would have but she wasn't going to process anything anyway. He would have time to absorb what was being said and determine what they needed to do and what more they needed to know. He could start working on a game plan, dissect the options, just like a crime scene.

He needed to separate himself. Luckily, he was well versed in the art of subtlety. Gibbs knew that he was going to have to fall away at exactly the right moment. He couldn't risk her feeling like he was abandoning her. Abby was looking at him totally bewildered. He put his arm around her and guided her the remaining few yards that spanned the two sides of the unit. He could get her to the door but then it was up to her. Sometimes you had to throw them in and see if they'd swim. Abby needed to do this alone. She had to face whatever it was that was coming. And he couldn't do it for her. Not this time.

Once they had reached the doorway, she heard Gibbs telling her that he had to talk to the doctor. That was fine. She didn't want to hear what they were going to say anyway. Not if there was even a chance that they were going to tell her that she would have to say goodbye. But, she couldn't do this alone. Standing frozen in the doorway she realized what had happened. Strange and familiar at the same time. She was once again alone. She needed somebody go with her and prove that her mind wasn't playing tricks on her.

Abby needed a lifeline to hold on to. But Tony needed to stay with Ziva. And Gibbs had to talk to the doctors. Nobody else was here. This was Mcgee. She couldn't not go. New memories needed to start being made to replace the last one. The one that would never go away. Her heart jumped into her throat as she looked in on him from the doorway. She could do this, after all, she wouldn't be alone.

One step inside the door was okay. The rest that followed were easier. It had taken her far longer than it should have to reach the center of the room. Why was she being…timid? This was stupid. He wasn't even awake. He was in some drug induced Lalaland. It had better be drug induced. Left to her own devices, she scurried across the room and dragged a chair beside the bed.

It was a scary idea to touch him. It was like he was there, yet something was missing. He was too quiet and still. And that was saying something because he was usually pretty adept at being both. But, his hand was just lying there and she was sure he would know that it was her. He would want to know she was physically there. Touch could be healing after all. She really didn't want him to be lonely, stuck all alone in his head. If they were reversed, she would want him to hold her hand. It made sense, and she really wanted to.

"It's me. Everyone is fine… We're all here. Gibbs is talking to your doctor and Tony is staying with Ziva. She got hurt too, but she'll be okay. So don't worry about it. Someone finally figured out a way to get Ziva unarmed, fill her up with medical grade narcotics until she can't resist. You're probably getting the good stuff too… I know you don't like sleeping on your back. Maybe it won't be for very long… You're going to be fine. I know it… You have to be. No pressure… You know, I was thinking about when I told you that Amy and McGregor couldn't end up together, that they were all wrong for each other. It feels like that was an eternity ago. But, maybe I was wrong. You never believed me did you? We both know how you made the book end after all… I really think we should talk about that ending."


	7. Chapter 7

I do not own NCIS; no infringement is intended.

As always, I appreciate your reviews more than you can know. Seriously, thank you to everyone who reads and an even greater thanks to those of you who take the time to leave feedback.

Ziva was being demoted. There was a crisis going on and she was ranked among the not sick enough to stay in Intensive Care. Her room was needed for more serious cases. They were sending her to a regular room ahead of schedule. Tony couldn't decide if this was truly an improvement or not. On one hand, she wasn't the sickest and they obviously felt secure in their decision to send her out.

On the other hand, he wanted her watched like a hawk in case anything were to happen. It had been over a day since they were first brought in. It didn't seem like enough time. Doctors were smart. Hence the coats. They wouldn't agree to the relocation unless they were sure... right?

Her nurse had come to tell them about her pending transfer and he had bit his tongue about his concerns. Ziva was all for it. She was looking a little too pleased with herself. That led to dangerous things. A new room meant that she had more freedom. Freedom to leave on her own and come back see Mcgee for herself and achieve her ultimate goal of leaving the hospital as soon as possible. She'd been going on and on about that last bit.

Gibbs had disappeared with Abby and not returned by the time Ziva's change in status was announced. Since she was pretty content with herself currently, DiNozzo decided it would be prudent to find Gibbs and tell him what was going on. He'd hate to see the hospital torn apart by hand, if Gibbs were to return and find Ziva gone. It wasn't a good day to screw with the Boss.

He exited the room and headed for the general direction of Mcgee's current location. Before he had gotten very close, he spotted Gibbs sitting in a chair along one of the walls, watching the room. He was tired, maybe Gibbs was too and had gotten confused. Wasn't the point to be in the room?

"Hey Gibbs, they're going to move Ziva to a different room. She's all planning to bust out but I think they've got her convinced to not leave the premises." Gibbs nodded his approval at the new plan. A step down the ladder was good. Progress was good. Tony plopped himself into the chair beside Gibbs.

"Weren't you going to come tell us about Mcgoo?" "Got sidetracked." "Why are we in the hall?" "Giving them space." "Mcgee's awake?" "No." Tony looked in the room for the first time. Abby was curled up in a chair beside the bed. She seemed to be keeping up a steady, extremely one sided, conversation. Tony watched Gibbs continue to watch her. "How long has she been like that?" "Awhile." "Any idea what she's been talking about for so long?"

Gibbs had a pretty good idea of exactly what Abby had been talking about. He had taken his place in the chair in the hall after finishing his discussion with the doctor. He had gone to the door but stopped at the quiet, constant, stream of murmuring floating towards the entrance. Instead of interrupt what he was sure she needed to say, he had found a place to wait. One where he could conveniently still watch over her, in case she needed him.

From his new spot, he made sure that he could keep an eye on Ziva's room as well. It was almost easy to forget that his team was more than their work, although it took up most of their time, they had private lives that went beyond their jobs. As he watched Abby, he realized that he was seeing it now, a glimpse of who they were, together, away from the office and the rules, when it was just them.

Sitting alone, watching them all, yet having nothing to do, nothing to occupy his hands or brain, his mind had time to wander. What had Jenny said while she was sitting by his bedside, when he couldn't even remember her? She probably hadn't said much of anything. There always had a lot of unsaid things between them. He couldn't help but wonder what he would have said if he'd had the opportunity to sit with Shannon as Abby sat with Mcgee.

Would he have talked endlessly about anything he thought might keep her there a second longer? Promised her anything to try and tempt fate, made sure she had a reason to stay? Or, would he have even been able to say a word? In response to Tony's questioning, he kept his silence, it wasn't his place or Tony's business to discuss. "She's the lip-reader, not me." Tony got the message. They continued to sit until Tony blatantly got bored of Gibbs' lack of responses and said he'd wait for Ziva's escort in her room. Tony's exit propelled Gibbs to decide to move. He needed to breach the invisible line keeping him out of Tim's room.

When he finally chanced going in, he found her still folded up in the chair, unmoved since the last time he had glanced in on her. "You can't be comfortable like that Abs." "Everything hurts anyway, what's the difference?" "Maybe laying down would help?" He gestured pointlessly at the sofa, this one no more appealing than the one they had previously claimed. "It's too far away."

He let the issue drop and Abby went quiet again. Gibbs could practically see the wheels turning in her head. He wasn't sure he had ever been able to think as intensely as Abby could. "What are you thinking about?" "Kate." "Kate?" "He can't be another Kate, Gibbs, he just can't. I can't lose him too." "He's not going to be. That's what I came to talk to you about."

"You can talk to his doctors later, but they managed to fix everything. It's not going to be quick, or particularly fun for him, but they have every reason to think he'll be okay." She didn't need to know how touch and go it had been, or for how long, not yet. Those facts could come out later, preferably after Mcgee could tell her himself. Gibbs wasn't about to tell her that he had almost flatlined, more than once.

He was good for now. His prognosis was getting better every minute. Barring anything drastic happening, they were all going to make it out of this. Abby was crying again. "Gibbs, I don't think I've ever been that scared. I still am so scared...I can't even imagine my life without him in it..." He stopped her before she could get any farther. There would be time later for wherever this conversation was going. It did not need to happen in the intensive care unit and not when she was so exhausted she probably couldn't even see straight.

He let Abby regain her composure. "Do you need me to do anything Gibbs? I know there has to be a million things we should be doing, to catch Dearing, to figure out where we're going to work." She tried to sound convincing but Gibbs knew he wouldn't be able to pull her away from that hospital even if he had intended to.

"I need you to stay right here. That's your job right now. And that's all I've ever asked you to do. I'll come back and check on you two later." He leaned down and softly kissed her forehead. Then he turned to go, leaving her much as he'd found her. It was time to make sure that Ziva was being cooperative and that Tony was still doing okay. Too many problems, too many ways to turn.

Gibbs asked the front desk for Ziva's new room number and followed signs through the winding halls until he came to the right area. In a reversal of their previous roles, he found Ziva wide awake and watching him from her bed and Tony dead asleep on yet another sofa, clearly not meant for someone as tall as DiNozzo was. Gibbs slipped in and claimed the chair next to her bed. "Ziva." "Hello, Gibbs. He finally went to sleep. It is good, he doesn't need to keep himself awake for my benefit."

"You okay?" "Of course. I am fine Gibbs. How is Mcgee?" "He has a longer road than you, but you should all be back fighting with each other soon enough." "Good. I did not want him to die. What is happening with everyone back at the Navy Yard? Is the Director all right?" She was apparently in a business mood. Deflection was a coping mechanism after all. Whereas Abby hadn't really meant her offer to help, Ziva would probably find a way to escape the hospital and return to the Navy Yard if she thought she had any chance of getting away with it. They would have to work on that later, knowing when to stop.

"Vance called. He's fine. We're all supposed to stay away. The other bureaus are handling things for now." They both sat in communal silence trying not to think about what must be happening across the city. Clearing away the devastation and investigating this case would take months. It was a mind-blowing amount of work Eventually they would be thrust back into the center of it all. Not for now. Now was for more important things.

"Aren't you supposed to be resting?" "I do not like the medication. They keep insisting it is necessary. I can not control what my mind brings up with its' interference. Yesterday was a day very much like one's that I have experienced in the past." Ziva had started avoiding meeting his eyes again, trying to hide herself from him.

He wasn't sure if she was talking about growing up in Israel, her sister, Mossad, or any other number of things she had seen that were sure to give anyone nightmares. Trying to fix the present was hard enough without having to battle the past. Why did they all have to rage wars against themselves?

"Go back to sleep, Ziver. I'm not going anywhere." She gave him a judging, calculated look before acquiescing and leaning back against her pillow. It didn't take very long for her eyes to slowly close. Three asleep and one driving herself crazy. It was better than the odds he had earlier. It looked like he might squeak out of this mess with his people intact. It was selfish, to be so worried about those closest to him when there was so much going on, an abundance of loss to the community.

Despite the questionable morals of it all, this time, he would take selfish. He didn't want to bury another person he was responsible for. Not one of the one's he had taught and molded, not one of those that he counted among his family. Only the one who was responsible needed to be buried.

Of course Dearing still being alive hindered that. Everyone had their breaking point. Gibbs didn't want to find out if losing one of his team would be his. Not again. Despite his valiant effort, Dearing had not won and he wasn't going to.


	8. Chapter 8

I do not own NCIS; no infringement is intended.

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It was dark and he was confused. He didn't know where he was or why or what was going on. He wanted to wake up but it was increasingly hard to make himself even semi-conscious. He could fix the dark if he opened his eyes. Or not, that took too much effort. He couldn't beat the haze he was swimming in. It was okay to relax. Somebody was telling him it was going to be okay. Someone warm and familiar. He could feel her fingers brushing his face and lacing through his. He had always been able to trust that voice. He could work on opening his eyes again later. He was so tired.

Gibbs had returned to the hospital. He had left to return to his home and attempt to try and figure out exactly what came next. A manhunt was on and he had every intention of being an active participant. Abby and Tony had promised to call him for anything and he had the doctor's phone numbers memorized. Furthermore, Tony had been instructed to go home as well, and take Abby with him. Gibbs had instructed him to use a crowbar to pry her away if she wouldn't leave voluntarily.

Still, he wasn't sure how successful that had been. He had touched base with Vance and Dearing was next on his his targeted list of issues to deal with. They were formulating a way to find the terrorist. If he got his way, it would require his sniper rifle. Better yet, something a little more point blank. Hopefully he could convince Leon to see the light. Vance and the other directors still wanted Dearing alive. Pity. Another reason Gibbs would never be director.

Dearing was on deck but first he had to go back to the hospital. They were taking away the sedation and allowing Mcgee to wake up. He would be there for that. Family first. Then he would find and expose of Dearing. Having plans helped. It gave him something to work towards and a undeniable sense that he could fix this mess.

There would be no more helpless floating. The time for action had come. Hate was fueling him. Gibbs hated the man who had hurt them all, more than he'd hated anyone in a long time. This was the rage reserved for Pedro Hernandez and Ari. He could add one more to the ring. Three didn't have to be a crowd.

Once Gibbs had returned to Mcgee's room the doctors had come to join them. When he had entered he had expected to find Abby and DiNozzo but found Ziva sitting alongside Tony on the sofa. He hoped her nurses knew where she had gone, he had the feeling this outing wasn't approved.

Ziva noticed his questioning gaze and deemed to answer his unasked question. "I told them I did not care what they thought, I wanted to be here. It was not hard to leave. I will return later." That was an argument not worth fighting. At least he was mostly sure that this battle hadn't followed Ziva's usual modes of operation when someone tried to contain her; he wouldn't have missed a trail of bloodshed in the hallways.

The sedation had been weaned and apparently Mcgee had been giving the professionals signs of waking. Gibbs left the seating situation as it was. He had no desire to share with his two agents. Abby was still sitting sentinel in her chair that she had claimed as her own so many hours ago. Lacking other options Gibbs went to the side of the bed opposite Abby. He wasn't going to sit anyway.

The nervous energy was getting to him. Most of it being expelled from the one across from him. She hadn't been sleeping, She had to have convinced someone to bring her caf-pow. DiNozzo. There was no other way she was this wound up. She looked like a spring ready to burst. He was getting a contact high just from watching her.

He pulled his eyes away from Abby, who was busy clutching at her own hands and switched to watching and waiting for Mcgee to decide to rejoin the land of the living. It only took a few minutes and his eyes burst open. The staff moved quickly speaking in what Gibbs supposed were their calm reassuring voices. Repeating, over and over, that he was okay, not to fight the ventilator and to calm down.

It wasn't working. Mcgee's eyes were frantically flying around the room. Freaking out wasn't going to help anything. Gibbs put himself in Mcgee's predominant line of vision. He managed to catch his eyes for a minute before Tim went back to the panicked looking around.

As he watched, Gibbs realized that looking seemed wrong. There was a pattern to the movements, getting more frantic by the second. "Mcgee calm down. Don't think I won't head slap you." Mcgee met his eyes for a split second, almost daring him and went right back to his previous actions. Mcgee was aware enough to know where he was. Something wasn't right.

Searching. He was searching. For what, Gibbs didn't know. They were all there. He flipped his perspective to what Mcgee would be seeing from his position and then he understood. "Abby, stand up." She had pushed her chair back out of the doctor's way. Mcgee couldn't turn his head that far. Confusion filled her expression.

Everyone, Gibbs included, had practically threatened her not pounce on Mcgee and to give him space. "Up now, Abby. He can't see you." She was out of the chair before anyone could blink. The second she stepped into his eye-line, the movements stopped. He was locked on to her and the tension fell away from his body. Gibbs backed away when she had leant down next to him, let them both have what they wanted. He let her have an opportunity to fawn over Mcgee. "Hey, Timmy. You have no idea how happy I am to see you."

The hours that followed had to be given over to the medical side of things. After Mcgee had successfully managed to not get any worse being awake, a consensus had been reached to try and let him breathe on his own. The team was asked to leave the room while the tubes were removed. They had corralled themselves in the tiny waiting area. It was full, a jarring reminder of the extent of what had been done.

Gibbs looked at Ziva, seeming to finally notice that she was still there, Tony beat him to voicing the thought. "Nurse Ratched is going to be ticked that you missed lunch. She'll take away your pudding privileges. Maybe they'll even find a guard to keep you in your room. Hey, you could make a new friend!" Ziva rolled her eyes and looked to Gibbs for permission to stay. Not happening. "Go Ziva. You can come back later."

Tony slipped off after her still attempting to outline everything that could happen to her once she arrived back on her own unit. Gibbs heard a smack from the end of the hall followed by a pitiful "Hey! That's not fair. I can't hit you back when you're hurt!" They could be exhausting. He went with Abby to find an open bench. She kept craning her head back towards the double doors that marked the entrance to the unit.

"They'll come get us." "I know." Abby had never been exceedingly patient when she wanted something. Gibbs watched all her nervous ticks as she waited. Someone needed to say something. He needed to be the one to talk to her. Optimistic Abby was back, which was a marvelous thing, but also brought along with it the attitude that she could jump into anything without consequences.

"Abs. I'm only going to say this once. Be careful. I know you're happy that Mcgee's awake and doing better. But, don't promise him anything, not because of all this. Everything is up in the air right now. Don't go down that road for the wrong reasons." She was quiet again after his mini lecture. He loved Abby, more than anything, but Gibbs knew how she could be. It wouldn't be fair to Mcgee if she was shaken up and offered him what she couldn't follow through on. "It's different this time Gibbs." She said it with such sincerity, don't-question-the-science sincerity, that he believed her.

"You know how sometimes things happen and you're not the same person you were when you woke up? Mostly the same but different. I thought he was dead Gibbs. I saw him and all I could think was that I blew it. I made him wait too long. He was dead and I was never going to see him again. I can't get him laying there out of my head. Losing any of you would have been terrible, but this is Mcgee. I don't know how to function without him anymore. I haven't for a really long time. Maybe not since the day I met him."

After her speech, they continued to wait. The waiting was different now though, not as worrisome and agonizing, more annoyingly long. Finally, they were given permission to return. Back in the now familiar room, Gibbs did his preliminary once over. Things looked better. Mcgee looked well enough for his liking. No where near perfect but Gibbs would take it. "Mcgee." "Boss."

A two word conversation yet it was enough to prove that they were back on track. He could hear a constant shuffling going on around him. Gibbs looked back at Abby doing the hand wringing thing and the nervous shifting behind him. It took everything not to sigh out loud.

It was time for his exit, time to go work on the plan. He was even going to have to rely on other tech people, the doctors probably wouldn't let him smuggle in a computer and put Mcgee to work. Even the national security card wasn't in play. That usually got him whatever he wanted. Time was running out for the constant companions in the hospital.

Eventually, Tony and Abby we're going to have to come back with him. Gibbs would bet Ziva would beat them to it if she could find a way. They were all going to have to start moving towards real life again, the monotony, the work, the cases, all of it. All of them. Talk about a miracle.

Gibbs left and it was just the two of them. Mcgee was watching her as she reclaimed her chair, she was growing fond of it, her own personal little corner of the world. She made decisions in that chair and run scenarios from start to finish. It was a self contained lab minus the cool equipment and awesome music.

Mcgee was doing that thing where he could see right through her again. There were no secrets when he was like that. "You okay?" How Mcgeeish, almost get yourself blown up and worry about her. "You had better not even think of worrying about me." The half smile he gave her was worth every second of mental torture he'd caused her.

"Want to talk about it?" No, she did not particularly want to bring back up all the fear. It wasn't gone anyway but she had been doing a pretty good job at keeping it at bay. "I want to know why you're watching reality TV when you don't even watch television." "I'm not, a nurse put it on. What's going on?" "Well, Gibbs is probably going to crucify Dearing. NCIS isn't in charge but I think he invited himself to the party. By the way, we're going to have to talk about you taking a page from the Gibbs' playbook. I don't want to see you getting hurt become a trend."

Translation: scare her like he had again and it would be the last thing he ever did. Abby was suddenly very interested in whatever show was playing. He didn't even know the name of it. It would be a good idea let her have a second to regroup her thoughts. He muted the television, deflection wasn't going to be acceptable.

"I'm sorry Abby." "Rule six." Her answer was too abrupt, mechanical, to be serious. "I think we were done with the rules a long time ago." He paused until she looked back over at him. "I am sorry for scaring you." She was on the verge of tearful again, she had told herself she wasn't going to get teary. He didn't need that. "You never have to apologize to me Tim, I thought you knew that by now."

He was getting tired again, they both could tell, no matter how hard he was trying to hide it. "You should go home Abs." "Not a chance. Hand over the remote. I'll leave it on mute." "You should sleep at your place. They'll probably make you leave soon anyway." Wicked. That was the only way he could describe the sudden look in her eyes. "They won't kick me out."

Her confidence in that statement was troubling. "What did you do?" "I may have told them I could boil them from the inside out at one point or another. They didn't believe me. So I described the process step by step. They looked a little green." She had made him laugh, it was going down as a personal victory. Abby slid her hand back into his. "Not going anywhere. I'll be right here, that's a promise." For now, that would be enough.


	9. Chapter 9

I do not own NCIS; no infringement is intended.

Thank you so much for reading! I am trying to have this finished before Season X starts up.

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The days had passed quickly once everyone was awake and alert. Gibbs had, in fact, demanded the return of those able to work. Three of four was more than adequate, to start with, when he had previously been thinking he'd never have them all again. Even Ducky had made his return to the Washington area. His medical transport had landed the same day Ziva had informed her doctors that she was leaving whether or not the agreed. Luckily, the went along with her decision. Life was returning to normal.

It had been well over a week since the blast had set them on this path. One loud boom and everything had fallen. Now they were picking it up. Slowly but surely things were getting better. Despite the improvements, the loss at the agency was great. The temporary housing for NCIS helped to pretend that the missing people were hiding in other areas rather than never coming back. That was how Abby had explained it to him.

Honestly, it was easier to accept reality but he wasn't about to point that out to her. He still got the occasional impression that Abby was holding on by a string. If she wanted to believe whatever theory she had cooked up, if it was going to help her get through this, then he wasn't going to stop her. There would be time to sort that out later.

Contrastingly, Tony and Ziva both seemed to be coping adequately. Gibbs' only mention of their elevator incident was to slap a copy of the thick emergency procedures handbook, open to the evacuation section, on each of their desks. Highlighting the word stairs had been a nice touch, if he did say so himself. They had received their gifts on the first day when both of them had returned to work. There was no need to mention it again. Gibbs was sure Vance would eventually have something to say on the topic but he was done.

There were more important things to do. Dearing still had a target on his back. That meant that Gibbs was still finding plenty of time to obsess and dream about the various ways Dearing could be sent to meet his maker. It was his new favorite activity. Anywhere. Anytime. Currently, he was voting to have him drawn and quartered. Unless they could find a guillotine somewhere. He could probably make one if necessary. It was mainly wood after all.

None of them had been officially cleared for work due to the massive undertaking it was to debrief and send everyone through the mandatory psych evaluations. Paperwork was the main task they were granted. Officially anyway. He hadn't seen either of his agents touch their stacks. No, everyone was still on the Dearing hunt. It wouldn't be long now. Tick tock on the Dearing clock. Almost time to play.

The day's work was over and Gibbs was on his way to do his rounds at the hospital. They were beginning to dwindle. Ziva had been freed. Mcgee should follow suit the next day. Even Ducky was getting clearance to return home within the immediate future. Gibbs was not going to miss medical facilities for as long as he could foresee. He paced his way down the now familiar halls. Ducky was up first.

The doctor was in good spirits. Jimmy had been by and Ducky was still singing the praises of "the lovely Breena." Ducky clearly had a new favorite person. Gibbs gave the required status report on the team and listened to the new plan Ducky was fixated on. It involved the team, a post Dearing world, and the next holiday season. Hopefully nobody had alternative plans. Ducky was adamant, he was claiming the time, months in advance. Family holidays, they would all be there or face the Doctor's wrath. Somehow Gibbs doubted anyone would turn him down. It gave him something to think about.

He assured Ducky that he really didn't have Thanksgiving plans, he never did, especially not months in advance. Then it was time to move on. Mcgee was next. It was four turns and a four flight elevator ride to Mcgee's room. A four minute walk, seven if he stopped for the water they were still trying to pass off as coffee. Mcgee still didn't look all that great. However, progress was progress. Mcgee had a laptop that someone had brought him. The computer was occupying his agent when he arrived in the room. Once Gibbs entered, Mcgee turned away from the screen. Despite turning his attention to Gibbs, he didn't say anything. Mcgee was thinking too hard. Smoke was going to come out of his ears.

"Mcgee?" The response was slow coming but did eventually make its' way out. "What comes next Gibbs?" Going on the assumption he didn't mean the next minute, Gibbs tried for an answer. "You take it one day at a time. That's all." Mcgee didn't response again. Despite his preferences, Gibbs was going to be required to seek answers. "Do you not want to leave, Tim?" "Of course not! I've been dreaming of getting out of this place." "Then what's the problem?" Mcgee paused, unsure how to answer Gibbs' question. The look he was getting told him he would be expected to answer. Gibbs really had non-verbal demands down to an art.

"I feel like everything has to change now. Life was fine before all this happened. Now, things are different. I didn't get a say in making them change. Do I get a say in whether they stay or go back to how they were? In here, at least everything is defined. Out there, you can't control anything. Nothing is stable anymore. And I'm sick of floating. What if I want to go back? What if I don't?" Gibbs was looking at him with the interrogative look he reserved for non-suspects. "The only thing you couldn't control was getting hurt. You have a say in everything else. Don't you forget that." Dearing would be held accountable for the hurting. That was a promise. Mcgee sounded too defeated for his own good. Things would get better. Day by day. But, Gibbs knew that Mcgee wouldn't be seeing reason right then.

Silence prevailed until they could hear Tony's voice entering the room before his body could follow. They could both hear the sing-song tune he was working on. "Oh Probie! Pizza arrives. I got your text, all ten of them. You're sure your allowed to have this? Because usually you don't say to not tell Abby. Three times." Tony was preceded by the pizza box he carried. Mcgee was reaching for the box before Tony had even attempted to set it down. "It's fine, nobody will care. I need real food. I don't know what Abby would say, but it was better not to risk it." Tony had commandeered the remote to the television and was flipping around looking for a show or movie he deemed appropriate. Gibbs took the opportunity to exit. He couldn't do a DiNozzo selection that evening. Best to leave them to it.

The pizza eaten, box safely disposed of in a rubbish chute that Tony had been sent to find, DiNozzo returned to finish out the last few minutes of the movie. As the credits were rolling, he looked over at Mcgee. "When's Abby coming?" "She's not tonight. We agreed she would stay at her place." That was a change, Abby had been visiting every day religiously. "How'd you convince her?" "We both needed a little perspective." Tony wasn't going to push the issue. But he was also almost sure Abby didn't share the opinion about needing perspective.

He and Ziva had a bet going on what was going to happen between the two once they were returned to their daily lives. Mcgee wasn't going with his dropping of the issue. "Is she okay at work?" "Not going to lie to you Probie, she's still not quite Abby. But, you didn't see her that first day. Don't worry so much. You know, you two could just talk to each other. Avoidance isn't working all that well." Mcgee didn't answer. Look who didn't want to talk anymore.

Once Tony had finally left, something about promising Ziva ice cream after she heard about the pizza, Mcgee tried to relax. It wasn't all that easy despite his new level of ease in hospitals. He was still uncomfortable. The room was dark and the faint light from the hallway wasn't doing much to illuminate anything, physically or mentally. He wasn't sure how long he'd been laying there, alternating between staring at the wall and the ceiling.

There was still the always fruitful activity of watching shadows pass by his door with which to utilize his time. He'd figured out a pattern to determine who was walking by. It all had to do with the pace of their walk and the type of shoes. Nurse, Doctor, Nurse, Nurse, Housekeeper. So maybe he had a little time on his hands. Not once had he been wrong about who was entering his room in the middle of the night.

It wasn't time for anyone to come in. They wouldn't until morning. The staff pretty much left him alone at this point. He was being sprung tomorrow… today, it was after midnight. She was really giving it a valiant effort to be quiet. But the light increased when she pushed the door open wide enough to slip through, and platforms made a very distinctive thunk when she walked. She claimed the chair, still sitting where she'd left it. "Abby?" She froze at her name and glanced up at him. Obviously she hadn't known he was watching her. "Thought you were staying home tonight?"

He waited for her to speak. She was the one who had come to him. "As horrible as this whole situation is, it's normal right now. Tomorrow you're going home. And I don't know what that means yet. I just wanted a little bit more normal, even if it's only for one more night." The amount of time before she answered told him that she wasn't saying what she really meant. Not exactly, she always said what she meant, but she was holding something back. Probably the conversation they'd both been avoiding since he'd woken up.

He didn't say anything in response. Apparently, that made her defensive. "I didn't think you'd be awake." He wasn't sure if that made it better or worse. She was mumbling and not looking at him. That wouldn't do. "Abs. Ditch the chair." "What?" You would have thought he'd asked her to jump off the roof of the building. "Come sit up here for awhile." It took her a few seconds to commit but he could feel her moving closer until she slipped onto the mattress next to him. He wrapped his arm around her and they sat. "Nothing has to change." "I don't want to go back to how it was before." "It doesn't have to. Abby, we can keep going. Whatever you want. I just need to know what that is."


	10. Chapter 10

I do not own NCIS; no infringement is intended.

I realize the premiere is in no time at all. This story will be done. There is going to be one more chapter that I'm posting either late Monday or super early on Tuesday. I can't leave this unfinished before the start of the next season.

As per usual, thank you so much for reading! I am overwhelmingly grateful for each and every response I get. Thank you and please review!

The next morning did indeed begin with Mcgee being discharged from the hospital. When he had woken up that morning Abby had been gone. It wasn't terribly unexpected. She never had been one to stay when she was avoiding something, but she typically had been while he was still an inpatient. In a move nobody was entirely comfortable with Ziva had received the honor of being responsible for carting him back to his apartment.

Apparently they were closing in on Dearing and she was the one not technically supposed to be there yet anyway. Abby had tried to convince the higher-ups to let her go, but without him there, she was the only one trusted to finish the work. Gibbs had spoken. Or Vance. He wasn't really sure. There was an agreement in place stating that Ziva had to obey all traffic laws and not attempt to work her way closer to the vehicular manslaughter charges everyone still suspected were at some point in her future.

He would be eternally grateful to the whatever doctor had made the executive decision for him to leave with all sorts of medicinal cocktails. Though he didn't really intend to take them once he was home, they made the drive much less stressful. Ziva kept up a distracting chatter about all that they had been doing to find Dearing. Mcgee's job had been taken over by Abby once Tony had proven exactly how inept he was when it came to the complicated computer business. That part was almost done. It was down to the finally trappings and legwork.

Looked like Gibbs would be getting his wish. He would more than likely go down in history as the one who found and dealt with Harper Dearing. Not that the public would ever know that. But Gibbs would be more than satisfied being the only one who ever knew if he could work out a way to keep it that private. Glory had never been his thing.

Ziva did make an extraordinary attempt to get him home safely. The fuzz inducing meds told him that she did anyway. That was what really counted. She could have run over small children and furry animals for all he knew. She stayed with him awhile and made sure he had what he needed. Then he had found out that she intended to stay until someone else arrived. At that point, for both their sanity, he kicked her out. When enticed, Ziva could hover just as badly as Abby. Something had to give or he'd be forced to try and stop her, which of course wouldn't end well for himself. By some good grace, he convinced her to believe that he could handle himself for the time being. Secretly he suspected she really wanted to return to the Dearing action but no matter what made her go along with his decision, he'd take it.

Staring at the door and walls of his apartment was less intriguing than the hospital had been. Less effective too, as nobody was walking about casting shadows. Still, the freedom was nice. The solitude hadn't lasted very long, probably the exact amount of time it took for Ziva to make it back to the temporary headquarters, everyone else to figure out he was alone, and a return trip to be made. He was an adult. Maybe they had forgotten. Then again, he'd been staring at his door the entire time since his return so who was he to judge their motives?

The ringing bell didn't surprise him. Subconsciously, he must have always known they'd never actually leave him alone. The complete lack of shock at who stood on the other side was comforting. "What are you doing here?" Abby wasn't going for the happy go lucky view of the world at the moment. "We talked about normal. Staying with you was at the hospital. And it used to be here too. So I'm going to stay. Unless you don't want me to. Plus, you probably shouldn't be alone for awhile anyway. You get loopy on drugs."

He could accept that. Except for the absurd notion that she'd leave if he didn't want her there. None the less, he was more than fine with it. Honestly, he wasn't totally sure he would be good at being in his apartment alone. Not the first night at least. In the hospital he had constantly been surrounded by people. Strangers or not, you got used to it, the movement and constant noise of other humans coexisting with you. If she hadn't have shown up he hated to admit that he probably would have ended up calling her. Didn't hurt that he genuinely wanted her there either. But then again, he usually always wanted her there.

Mcgee moved out front of the door to let her in. Before very long, she was bouncing around arranging her things wherever she deemed they needed to go. Without warning her, before he could stop himself, he yielded to her own personal style of fix-all and grabbed her into hug. "Thank You, Abby." He meant it to be all encompassing, to thank her for being there, that night and all the times before, for not leaving him, for being herself. Hopefully she knew. "Thank you, Tim." "For what?" "For not dying." It was probably the most sincere thing she'd ever said to him. Her level of seriousness rattled him.

Aside from the recent injuries and whole terrorist attack thing, their night was relatively normal. They ordered dinner and fought about the same stupid things they had been fighting about for years. Normal was a wondrous experience. Especially when you thought nothing would ever be normal again. Mcgee was still on his early to sleep schedule so he had wandered off to bed long before he normally would have. A few hours later he found himself awake again. Something wasn't right. Something beyond what he already could confirm wasn't currently right in their lives.

Abby had insisted she wasn't tired. She had said that she was going to watch something on his computer. When he had left, she had been okay. He had no reason to assume it still held true. Then he had heard her. Once he made it to the living room he couldn't get her to wake up fast enough. Of course she was hiding it from them all. It wasn't like she actually slept much normally. This was different, beyond the usual issues. He was pretty sure he never remembered her sobbing in her sleep. After he had shaken her awake she watched him guiltily. He didn't need to deal with the mess she had become. Not when he was supposed to be healing himself. "When's the last time you actually slept?" Her shrug was telling. At least she didn't try to deny what he'd seen. "Come lay down." There was no fighting just acceptance.

It was dark and quiet. The exact opposite of that now infamous day which had been far too bright and loud. They had started out on opposite sides of the bed. Then she had begun inching over. When she finally made it to him, she was still shaking. "Who else knows?" "Nobody. There's so much going on, nobody needs anything else to worry about. I'm fine." She was trying to kill him. Doing a pretty good job of it actually. He had never been able to stand it when she was crying.

"Abby, you don't have to show it outside to be hurt inside. You can drop the act. I know you're not okay. I think I have for awhile and I'd rather you told me what's really going on instead of torturing yourself. There's nothing wrong with that. We were all there. You can't have come out of that perfectly fine. I can't read you mind this time. What's inside your head?"

The half worries that she wouldn't answer him quickly dissipated. "All of a sudden I just feel so afraid. I don't even know what I'm scared of most of the time. Something just takes over and I can't do anything about it. I don't know whether I'm dreaming or remembering while I'm asleep. I don't want what I'm seeing to be real… I don't want to remember it. I don't ever want to remember. You're all gone… I'm so alone. I can't ever do that again. And I can't stop seeing you lying there… Not just when I'm asleep... I try everything but you never wake up. I thought you were dead… I can't stop seeing you dead. Tim, I'm sorry. I am so sorry."

He decided to interrupt her before her current acceleration got to a place where he couldn't stop her, had to surrender her to her own thoughts. "Hey, you don't have anything to be sorry for Abby. I'm okay and Dearing is the only one who gets to be sorry. Gibbs will make sure that he is." He doubted she was really listening to him. But she did slow down a bit. There was nothing he could do erase what was going on in her mind. If there was he'd have done it in a heartbeat.

When she started back up again, her voice still had the distant quality that he now associated with things only she could see. "Do you have any idea how devastating it was to think I was never going to see you again? That you were never coming back? I can't do this without you anymore." Flashes of stalkers and guns pointed at her head popped into mind. Now he could add the imagined vision of her in the lab post bomb, minus Gibbs. Not exactly pleasant, more bloodcurdling.

"I know exactly what that feels like. When I woke up. I thought everyone else was there. But not you. You were the only one I cared about seeing and I thought you were gone. That maybe you couldn't be there. It's always been like that Abs. I look for you first. I can't imagine thinking what you did for hours or days, because a few seconds almost ended me." The quiet took back over the room. There was nothing else he could do except keep holding on until the last of the tears finally fell away. How did you fight against what you couldn't see?

An hour after they had finally managed to fall asleep, they were wrenched back awake by the repeated ringing of their cell phones. She was quicker to respond. Abby had wrestled Mcgee's off the charger to answer before he could even move. It was the call they had all been waiting for. Tony did not waste time. "Gibbs found Dearing."

Such a short message yet it was almost over. It wasn't really relief that came from knowing he had been found. Instead, it was something more akin to resolution. The live fire round of their game was almost complete, the falling action. They had always known that he would, eventually, track him down. Their boss didn't leave any stone unturned when he was on a war path. Dearing should have known that he would never be able to hide. He had been taken by the fatal flaw of all those who went up against Gibbs, they never understood that they shouldn't even start.


	11. Chapter 11

I do not own NCIS; no infringement is intended.

Thank you for sticking with my story.

This started as a one shot that quickly became the most ambitious project I've done on this site.

Thank you for every review and every reader! I really cannot adequately express the amount of gratitude I have for you all.

Please review! (Last chance! It's done!)

In less time than anyone should probably admit, every member of team Gibbs had assembled at their current office building. Hopefully, they would receive the sit rep to end all sit reps. Gibbs probably wouldn't out and out tell them anything but between all of them, they could usual find out enough to put together what had happened. Tony and Ziva had been awaiting Abby and Mcgee's arrival. Of course they would come. It was a night for family.

Gibbs was still nowhere to be seen. Eventually he would come and find them. That was how it worked. The boss went off on his schemes and they were left to wonder. Yes, sometimes he took them along, but not when it was this personal. Vendettas didn't tend to require them. Then he came back and everything that had sounded insane to begin with made perfect sense in the summary.

Months of their lives had been spent focused on the hunt for Dearing. Months more would be dedicated to fixing what he had broken. Their lives were not make believe. They couldn't wave a wand and right all that had gone wrong. Time was an option now. It could be said with growing certainty since the explosion. Now, they had futures solid enough to bother cleaning up for. Dearing was a ghost. He'd still be around to haunt them, but his days of havoc and damage were over.

Mcgee sat with Ziva to wait while Abby and Tony took turns pacing the room. They were a motley looking crew. Tony clearly hadn't left the office for days and the others were in equal stages of disarray. When Gibbs took down a terrorist, you didn't bother with little things like proper clothing before hightailing it to work. No matter how much changed, some things stayed the same. Find Gibbs, come together. Remember you're all still alive.

None of them had waited on Gibbs lately. It had been awhile. Dearing was the first to ignite this level of rage in their fearless leader in quite some time. Instead, Gibbs had been waiting on them, they'd been waiting on each other, hoping to make it through without losing another member of their family. He somehow usually ended up making tidy circles of their lives, bringing them all back to where they started. Dearing had made his actions about Gibbs. Gibbs had flipped the tables and solved the riddle, now Gibbs had been the one to finish it. The word was final. Dearing would not hurt his family again.

Aside from Tony and Ziva's initial questioning looks, everyone had chosen to ignore the blatant evidence of Abby's breakdown. Make up covered all manner of sins but it could turn on you. None of them were where they had been a lifetime ago. It was true. You could live a lifetime in a second, an hour or a day. It only mattered how much you put into it. With all they had been though lately, it counted as a lifetime. The birth and death of a tragedy. Epilogue to be determined.

Gibbs could see them before they saw him. It had happened often enough that it was now routine. As often as he snuck up on them, you'd really think they'd become more observant. Maybe it was good that they didn't. It was more than enlightening to watch them from the shadows. His senior field agent was being himself. "Hey, Ziva, how do you say "You killed my father, prepare to die. " in Hebrew?" Her response was quick, suspicion of her partner raising with each word out of his mouth. "Why?" "Probie wanted to know."

"No I didn't!" Mcgee was back in the game, balking at Tony's suggestion. The defense to DiNozzo's offense. The senior agent ignored the protest and resumed his main line of questioning. "Come on Ziva! Help out the linguistically challenged. You never know when you're going to need to be able to pull out some impressiveness." Once she decided to answer him, Ziva's response didn't sound right to Gibbs' ears.

If Gibbs had to guess he'd say it was Pashto. Or a dialect possibly. Abby chimed in helpfully. "That wasn't Hebrew." Tony turned on the Israeli. "You lied? Wait, how do you know it wasn't? You better not be learning it. You and Gibbs already have the secret sign language, stay out of my choice. She speaks like twenty languages pick another." Gibbs could hear Abby laughing from his hiding spot. "Relax Tony, rudimentary linguistics remember. I'm not learning Hebrew."

It was nice to listen to them. They provided the reassurance that life would go on. Gibbs shifted out of his corner and more fully into the room they inhabited. He had spent a long enough time taking them in. They did not need to be there, they had spent enough time away from their homes. It was time to reacclimate to life. Not that he believed for a second more than half of them would make it to their own apartments. Abby spotted him first.

He could hear the familiar "Gibbs, Gibbs, Gibbs" as she ran to meet him and pigtails obscured his vision. After his mandatory hug was received, the bombardment of questions began. They really needed to master how to not talk over each other. Years of working together and they were still doing it. Of the rapid fire set of twenty questions from four people, he probably registered half. If that. His resulting instruction was simple. "All of you go home."

They were dismissed. Gibbs didn't explain. Not how he knew where Dearing would be, or how things had ended. Or that it had been poetic enough on Dearing's part to be a plan Gibbs would have come up with on his own, roles reversed. It would ruin the magic if he told them. Some kind of black magic covering the past events as they had yet to be dissected for analysis.

If his gut could ever be understood it would automatically lose its' spot in the running for one of the wonders of the world. One of them had said that once. He didn't remember which, it was a long time ago. Eventually they would more than likely figure out everything that had happened. They were that good at their jobs. Would he put it past them to investigate him? Never. He had taught them after all. Done what he could to raise them into the people they had become.

For tonight, It was better they didn't know the details. They knew he was dead. That was enough. It needed to be enough. Tomorrow morning he might not be proud of his actions. Just or not. They didn't need to know that. What they did need to know was that they were a little safer now then they had been a few hours ago. His blood lust was temporarily satiated. Another monster dealt with. The never ending battle.

Though they had closed the book on Dearing, Gibbs knew that by dawn there would be dozens more lining up to take his spot. The wall never lacked in most wanted. Another proof they weren't done. The last time Gibbs had seen that wall it had been doing a decent job of letting in sunlight. However, maybe now they would have time to rebuild. And he didn't mean buildings.

They had walked towards their cars collectively. Gibbs left them first headed, as always, for the basement to introduce the next memory to its' silent memory. Tony and Ziva eventually broke away when they reached their destinations. Mcgee followed Abby back to her car. They weren't exactly together, but they weren't not together either. It was a hell of a lot closer than they had been to being anything in years.

After everything that had happened, it was probably the best way to be. He reverted to his new staring habit as she navigated towards his apartment. "You going to come back with me?" It didn't hurt to make sure. "I might, what if I decide that I don't want to leave?" Two could play that game. He was just as well versed at it as she was. "What if decide I don't want you to? I think that's a risk I can take." One act of terrorism, one bomb, had broken everything apart. For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. It was a law. Laws were rules and everyone knew they followed the rules. Well, most of the time. Maybe now things could fall together in harmony.


End file.
